Around February 15, 1866

A small article on the front page of The Natchez Democrat on December 11, 1865, described a conflict between state militia and black freedmen almost two weeks earlier. The incident occurred as the militia attempted to search for arms in the black community Grenada, Mississippi. The militia seized "a large number of muskets, ammunition…from the negroes."

One of the main forms of entertainment for communities in the post-civil war South was the Circus. There were several different companies that would travel from city to city, stopping for a few days to do a few performances before moving on to their next venue. Mike Lipman's Colossal Combination or Circus Menagerie came to Louisville, Kentucky for four days in the middle of April 1866. According...

At the close of the Civil War, wealthy northerners were interested in acquiring new farmland to develop. To do so, they needed to relocate to areas that were less populated than the North. Despite their admiration for South Carolina’s “lands and climate,” northerners feared living in the state, because of the potential violence. During this time, South Carolina began enacting black codes to...

On April 26, 1866, the Virginia legislature passed a joint resolution with the state of West Virginia to charter the Covington and Ohio Railroad Company. The much needed line would run from the termination of the Virginia Central, at Covington, to the mouth of the Big Shady river off the Ohio, where it would connect to another rail line from Kentucky. According to the May 4th edition of The Louisville...

Throughout the years of our countries existence, the United States Constitution has had many Amendments added to it. One of the most important and influential of these amendments has to be the 13th amendment. This amendment states “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United...

In December 1865, The Sun in Baltimore reported on a story from the Norfolk Virginian concerning the formation of a militia in Matthews County, Virginia. The war had ended months before, but the men of Matthews County still felt the need to protect themselves. The possibility of an insurrection of the newly autonomous group of freedmen in their area terrified the white men of Matthews...

In 1866 Virginia, grand larceny included stealing someone's bacon. In Fluvanna County, a black man named William Holly stole the bacon and other property belonging to a white woman named Beverly Haden. Haden pressed charges for the offense, and the accused stood trial for his crimes, and was found guilty. After emancipation, trials involving free blacks in the South were often conducted carefully...

In the year 1865, Samuel Wilson signed a Freedman's Bureau document that concerned two of his younger slaves. The document proclaimed Edmund and Farrel free boys of color. The document went on to say that the boys were age 13 and 11 and became Samuel's apprentices till the age of 21. The two boys had to faithfully serve and obey their master until their apprenticeship with Samuel came to...

On May 02, 1866, Schuyler Colfax, the speaker of the House of Representatives delivered a speech in response to the President Andrew Johnson’s unsatisfactory message at the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress. Colfax, serenaded by the public of Indiana, delivered a telling speech bathed in assurance of American “security under the protection of equal laws,” a tribute to “our noble President,...

In Tullahoma, Tennessee dissatisfied southerners took torches to an African-American schoolhouse, as a means to stop the education of freedmen. The Central Press from Bellefonte, Pennsylvania stated that the southerners “could find no vent for their pressing passions except by indulgence in arson.” General Thomas ordered the arsonists to rebuild the schoolhouse, an order that was...